Right of access

The key phrase there is right of service access rather than the word servitude which can give a general right of way.

Fom the Oxford English Dictionary

Servitude: Law: An obligation attached to a piece of property which restricts the owner's use of it or permits others to exercise specified rights over it; a restriction on property for the benefit of a person or party other than its owner.

Easement is a similar term.

Scots Law. A restriction on property for the benefit of a person or party other than its owner;

Generally, servitude would allow the benefited property (i.e. the neighbour’s) to utilize part of the burdened property (i.e. your son’s) for specific purposes, such as rights of way, access to utilities, or drainage.

See:

www.rocketlawyer.com/gb/en/property/manage-rental-property-in-scotland/legal-guide/servitudes-and-public-rights-of-way-in-scotland

A common example of a servitude is a right of access. A neighbour could have the right to cross part of your property to allow them to get from their house to a public road or path. Other common servitudes are the right of drainage, the right to lay utility cables, and the right to take water from a private source.

Servitudes can have a big impact on how you use and enjoy your property. If you’re buying a house, it’s important to know about any servitudes giving other people rights to use the land in a way that would spoil your enjoyment of it.

However, the deeds specifically say right of service access. This typically refers to a legal right, through an easement or servitude, that allows someone to access another person's land for the purpose of providing or maintaining services like utilities (water, gas, electricity) or telecommunications infrastructure. This right allows them to install, repair, or maintain the service lines that run through the land.

In general, a servitude must be reasonably required for the comfortable use and enjoyment of the benefited property. The existence of the right has to be obvious from the relevant facts and circumstances. In other words, is there another route the neighbours could reasonably use to use to get to their garden and to take shopping into their home?

They can get to their garden via their front door. They park outside their front door and then walk through sons garden with shopping to take it straight to their kitchen, which they can access by entering via their front door and accessing their kitchen.

Sorry if that not clear. They basically park outside their front door. They then walk over driveway and sometimes past sons window and looks in that direction which he says is weird. They have access to use the yellow tinted area which goes around his drive way, not through it. They then access his garden so they can go straight to their kitchen, via their backdoor. No reason for this, surely? Son accesses kitchen by entering his house via front door and walking to kitchen. They are taking a detour for some reason.

I moved into a mid terrace house my first house oblivious to small print when signing the contract. I realised after a short time the neighbour to my right was using my back gate to put the bin out and allow access to anyone workmen utilities etc. I was at work all day and would arrive home to see my back gate was open. When I questioned the neighbours I was told it had always been allowed by the previous owner. They had assumed it was acceptable that I allow access for bins etc.

To be honest I didn’t look at the small print and padlocked the gate I considered it was an invasion of privacy. Needless to say we often had disputes with the neighbours and eventually moved. On paper legally I might have been wrong but I never looked into it but I would do the same again protect my own space.

As the rear of the neighbours property is not the only point of access for their shopping, it does look as if they're not abiding by the legal definition of the right of service access.

You say that he has already asked them to desist so I suggest that he asks them again. He should point out that accessing their property in order to take shopping directly into their kitchen is not covered by this right of service access and if they continue to do so, he will be taking legal advice.

This is obviously a Scottish legal term, not one which we would use in England. It may be restricted to a right to use and access any services (drains, cables etc) within the pathway, or it may not. Your son needs to consult a Scottish solicitor to understand what rights the neighbours have over his property. It’s impossible to make sense of the wording by applying English legal principles to it.

I was brought up in a terrace of houses that had an access path running along the back of the whole row by the kitchens, with the gardens then behind the path. Everyone used it to avoid trudging through the “best room” at the front.

I notice now, when the cottages come up for sale on Rightmove that every cottage now gives onto its own garden and the service path doesn’t exist anymore.

Presumably the owners reached some sort of agreement, probably involving compensation for those that lost the facility. Would your son consider offering a sum of money to remove the servitude? It would increase the value of his property because it might put buyers off in future, so could be worthwhile.

Indeed perhaps it’s what the neighbours are hoping by being so awkward🤔

This is a right for services I believe.
Not general access.
If they are just coming into theirr house. No.

Unfortunately your son can't even buy them out though because it's "irredeemable".

I do not have to ask for access.

It certainly sounds as if the neighbours are taking the mickey a bit here, but your son does need to get proper legal advice here, as the laws around servitude can be extremely complicated. I know this from previous experience - we live in Scotland.

*They don't seem to need to ask (though thst would be polite) re drain access or electricity for example.

Irredeemable- oh dear. Offering money’s no good then.

Guess it’s all going to hinge on that word “service”.

And how much each party wants to spend on a legal argument 😱

Do they use this access for bins?

Did you intend to attach a copy of the diagram (with any specific identification redacted) as it’s quite hard to visualise. If they can park outside their front door then why not use it?

This sounds like a long-held habit for some historical reason maybe to do with keeping a best room (as Lathyrus says), or not wanting to disturb whoever uses or used to use the front room, or just how these people live. Some people do spend a good deal of the day in the kitchen.

My sister-in law never used her front door as she had boxes of clutter piled behind it and always entered via the rear garden gate and kitchen. My former NDNs, now both dead, always entered their house via the attached garage whch lead to the kitchen. They were extremely houseproud. The hall and sitting rooms were kept as show rooms. Visiting family and guests had to enter through the garage too. The only person who regularly knocked on the front door was the postman delivering the occasional parcel. Neither householders’ behaviours impinged on anyone else. My new NDNs use the front door.

The reason I relate these anecdotes is to ask how your son’s neighbours’ friends and family, delivery and tradespeople access the property. Are they also cutting across your son’s garden?

I am assuming your son’s neighbours lived in their home before your son bought his. I am wondering who lived in your son’s house before and why they moved. Was it an activity the previous owners were happy to allow perhaps because they were good friends or even related? Or maybe the previous owners didn’t like what was happening and that’s why they moved but without seeking taking legal redress.

Just as in England, disputes with neighbours must be declared during a Scottish conveyance. Failing to disclose such disputes can lead to legal action from the buyer if they can prove misrepresentation.

Therefore, one issue to consider is that if your son does take legal action then it would have to be disclosed were he to sell up. Far better to try to resolve this amicably if possible.

What exactly do these people mean by him making it awkward? What might be convenient for their lifestyle but not really necessary is proving unpleasant and intrusive for him.

Could he put a lock on his side gate to stop them coming through unnecessarily.
Then on the rare occasion real utility workers had to gain access he could let them through.
To cover emergencies in his absence he could either fit a coded lock and give them his mobile number.
Change the code thereafter of course.
Or fit a yale lock and leave a key with a trusted other contact person.
It may not strictly be correct but I would want to at least limit cheeky plucker behaviour.
I'd hate a layout like that and had never heard of it until I read MN.
Why don't all the residents agree to change it. They could create an alleyway at the end of their gardens with gates in each rear fence. Assuming there is or could be created a side alleyway.
The end house might lose a sliver of garden to create this but I'd prefer that to people tramping past my windows and across my private space.

Access to take shopping in is unreasonable but they do have a right to access for maintenence etc.

If it was me I would give them notice in writing why I was stopping it, padlock the gate or otherwise prevent them access. Its
then up to them to take action if the want to be awkward

welbeck

Could he put a lock on his side gate to stop them coming through unnecessarily.
Then on the rare occasion real utility workers had to gain access he could let them through.
To cover emergencies in his absence he could either fit a coded lock and give them his mobile number.
Change the code thereafter of course.
Or fit a yale lock and leave a key with a trusted other contact person.
It may not strictly be correct but I would want to at least limit cheeky plucker behaviour.
I'd hate a layout like that and had never heard of it until I read MN.
Why don't all the residents agree to change it. They could create an alleyway at the end of their gardens with gates in each rear fence. Assuming there is or could be created a side alleyway.
The end house might lose a sliver of garden to create this but I'd prefer that to people tramping past my windows and across my private space.

This has some good ideas in. Like building a fence round his garden so neighbour has to go round the side and back, which would allow free access but stop looking in windows, ad a padlock on th get if heavy service equipment or underground access needed right outside the windows.

Assuming he owns the house he should revert to the conveyancing solicitor he used when purchasing it, as he should have been alerted to any rights then, and queried/confirmed them with the seller. If the neighbours have been exercising right of passageway for years they may have that right regardless of what the deeds say. They may want to keep the right in order to maintain a higher house value If they sell (highly likely). If he simply blocks off the entry, and they do have right of access, they can remove it. Also is the access used for putting the bins out on the street as that's a minefield.
A good solicitor should tell him his legal rights and how to best execute them as well as consequences of any potential illegal actions he may choose to take (barring the access).

They do use their front door that is what puzzles my son. Every so often they just go through his garden. They sometimes do this to access their shed. But the shed is in their garden whcih again you can access by walking through the house, to the kitchen and out the backdoor.

Yes they can use it for putting bins out but they keep theirs outside their front house no that has never happened.

The awkward comment has confused my son. They are simply being awkward. If they don't like living in a terrace house, don't buy one. Yes they are cheaper but not my sons issue. The other week they were emptying their car to put things in their shed. My son had his car parked very close to his windows. One of the neighbours was almost squeezing past his car with boxes and had a cheeky look in his window. He doesn't understand why they walk across his driveway either. They are either too stupid and don't understand definitions or too lazy to take the extra steps to walk around the drive way to the path in which they have access to use.

Exactly OldFrill. Afaik nobody here is an expert in Scottish property law, which is not the same as English law. A right of way cannot simply be blocked off. The OP’s son must ask the solicitor who dealt with his purchase exactly what this means of access can be used for and, if the access originally authorised has been expanded by long use, what the current situation is and if there are any means of altering the arrangement with the neighbours’ agreement, as would be the case in England - but if the neighbours agree they would probably ask for compensation as well as requiring the son to bear all the legal costs.

“If you don’t like living in a terrace house don’t buy one”

They bought a terrace house with a right of access.

If you don’t like your neighbours having a right of access across your garden, don’t buy a house that s got one, maybe?

Awkward, horrible neighbours. Probably derive some pathetic satisfaction from winding him up. He either puts up with them, fights them legally ( they'll probably ignore it) or plays dirty +blocks access, gets an XL Bully, has all night parties). These kind of neighbours seem to enjoy confrontation and are never wrong. CCTV might keep them in check when he's not around. One way plastic screen on windows means he can look out and they can't see in.

Lathyrus3

“If you don’t like living in a terrace house don’t buy one”

They bought a terrace house with a right of access.

If you don’t like your neighbours having a right of access across your garden, don’t buy a house that s got one, maybe?

Ah if life was so simple. I daresay the previously s owners concealed this supposed right, if it was being exercised at that time. Or it is a "new" right being claimed by nasty neighbours. Right of service access is rarely a big deal and that's what the purchaser thought was allowed.

I would have thought 'right of service 'refers to their right of access to push their dustbins on the path to the street and retrieve them, and for access for building work or painting, cleaning etc. My friend had this situation and never had any trouble from either of her neighbours.
But he will have to check with a solicitor as it sounds as though his neighbours are being deliberately uncooperative.